Featherweight
by Ruphira
Summary: What if Hikari finds the Blue Feather before Mira has a chance to explain it to her? In the course of a day, the hapless farmer manages to turn the town upside down by innocently running around with her discovery. .:Oneshot, Harvest Moon: Animal Parade:.


**A/N: Just a quickie oneshot about how Blue Feathers could go wrong in Harvest Moon: Animal Parade if it weren't for Mira. So next time you see her, remember to thank your neighbourhood hero!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own in any way the Harvest Moon series.**

Hikari dragged her feet up the final set of stairs, resting her elbows on the floor above and pulling the rest of her body up.

"Finally," she gasped to her tiny companion, "we…made it."

The orange sprite flitted around the empty room, releasing orange bursts of magical energy. "Yayyy!" he cried. "The top floor of the mine! I never thought we'd come here!"

"I know," Hikari replied, panting as she lay sprawled on the ground. "I…hate….mining."

"But it pays so well!"

The weary farmer sat up, stretching her arms to her toes as she looked around unhappily. "Finn?"

"Yeah!"

"Is this seriously the infamous top level? There's _nothing here."_

The sprite stopped in mid-flight and glanced around himself for apparently the first time. "Oh," he said, sounding bummed. "You're right."

Hikari stood up and put her hands on her hips as Finn drifted sadly downward to land on her shoulder. His tiny shoulders slumped in dejection.

"Hey now," the farmer murmured to him. "There's a light at the end of our tunnel, so to speak."

The fairylike being followed her pointing finger to an arched opening at the far end of the cave, illuminated with sunlight. "Another room!"

She strode over to it and poked her out the opening. It led outside.

Amazed, she and Finn stood on the waiting plateau and looked around in awe. The plateau was apparently attached to the mountain—either that or it was floating freely in the sky. A tall set of unsupported stairs led into the clouds, while another headed downwards. Directly in front of them was a giant, carefully made nest.

"DRAGON!" Finn shrieked, ducking behind Hikari's shoulder timidly. His little pointed hat quivered as just his eyes peeked over at the suspicious nest.

The farmer laughed good-naturedly at him. "Finn, it's not a dragon! Look—there's a beautiful blue bird in there."

But as Hikari examined the bird closer, she realized that it wasn't just a beautiful blue bird. It had an aura; it was like one of her Shining products. It _glowed_, shimmered. Feeling two sets of eyes on it, it turned its regal head and stared unabashedly back at them with two intelligent, sapphire-like eyes.

Hikari took a cautious step forward.

The blue bird trilled at her, spreading its wings majestically. She held her breath.

It flew away.

"Aaw," Finn moaned.

Hikari was disappointed it was gone, but she wanted a keepsake. She walked over to its abandoned nest and peered inside.

Perfect! A flawless, immaculate blue feather sat directly in the middle of the nest. She tiptoed in and snatched it, looking around in case the bird didn't take kindly to humans crunching around its home.

Hikari held the feather triumphantly up to Finn, and examined it closely as she walked back to him. "Look," she whispered, staring at it in awe.

The feather was iridescent, and inconstant shades of blue. It seemed to always be changing—fading dark blue to light, then light to dark, or a completely other combination. It was entrancing.

"Let's go show some of your friends!" Finn suggested in excitement.

"Yeah," Hikari snorted. "Look at me, I'm all grimy and sweaty."

"I think I saw a hot spring at the bottom of the stairs, so come come come!"

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Mira picked her skirt up delicately as she walked through the muddy puddles towards Hikari's farm. She _hated _the rain! And farmland always got soaked the worst.

Reaching the farmhouse, she knocked at the door and glanced down at her watch with satisfaction. 6am, right on time.

Hikari didn't answer right away. Mira smoothed out her skirt and looked around at the animals contentedly grazing. They didn't seem to care about that she was there.

It was 6:05 now. Mira scrutinized the house: newly upgraded and remodeled, it looked gorgeous. Perfect for starting a family.

Now 6:08. A family, which is what Mira came to talk to Hikari about.

6:09. Oh, yes, even someone at Mira's age could tell when there was a love bug in the air.

6:10. Too bad it had infected several boys and Hikari was clueless.

6:11. Everyone knew that the farmer rose at the ungodly hour of 5:45 to be out of her house by 6. Where _was _she?

"Hikari?" Mira called, banging on the door. "Hello, are you home?"

Where else _would _she be? Nobody was off doing work before most of the town was even awake.

Right?

Mira crossed her arms in annoyance. Typical Hikari, unintentionally defeating someone's plans.

Oh, well. Her girl-to-girl talk would just have to wait for another day, then. Like…tomorrow.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Hikari took the stairs all the way down the mine, but she was still feeling refreshed and energized by the time they got to the base of the mountain. She half-chased Finn around, twirling in the glittery trail he left.

"HI HIKARI!" Chloe yelled, waving her whole arm and half her body at the farmer. Hikari waved back with a grin and walked up to the little girl.

"Wanna see something really neat?" she asked.

Chloe bounced around her feet. "Yeah yeah yeah!"

The farmer produced the feather from her backpack. "Ta-da!"

Chloe's eyes went wide and she stared, mesmerized. "OoooooOooooO, that's preeeetty…"

Hikari stowed it back in her bag. "Sure is," she replied. "I'm putting it on display in my house. Well, see you later—say hi to Owen and your grandpa for me, 'kay?"

"Aw, okay! Bye!" The little girl skipped towards the mine entrance.

Hikari stopped by the shops down the path (Mira wasn't in hers) and was greeted with good-lucks and congratulations by all when she showed the feather. The congratulations she couldn't wrap her head around, but the good-luck wishes made sense: tomorrow was the Animal Festival, and everyone knew she wanted to win.

She spotted Luke swinging his axe around haphazardly in the way Jin hated as she crossed the bridge.

"Hey, Luke!" she called, waving. The carpenter grinned widely and waved back. "I have something I want to show you!"

"Yeah?" Luke placed his axe, blade down, on the ground, and rested his arm on the handle. "What's up?"

Hikari dug around in her rucksack as she walked up to him. "I found the most amazing thing—I think you're going to love it. Um…Where did I…Aha!"

She pulled the feather out and held it up to his face, tickling his nose with it. It took a moment to sink in. He blushed furiously and his eyes widened.

"H-H-Hikari?" he stammered. "This—the legendary—I—you…seriously?"

Hikari stared at him in total confusion. "The…feather? Yes…?"

Luke dropped his axe and grabbed her around the waist, twirling her in the air. "I never thought—you and me!" He let her down, and she stared at him in twice the confusion. "I have to go tell Dad! Meet me at the lighthouse after dark tonight, and we'll talk!" He brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and ran off towards the carpentry shop, arms flailing in excitement. He almost ran directly into Bo, who was just leaving. Hikari watched him go with her mouth slightly ajar.

Bo had watched the whole thing with interest from the window. She turned to him, "What just happened?" The adolescent shrugged, his mouth quirked in half a smile.

Well, Bo had a point—this was Luke after all. He was allowed his moments of randomness. Hikari stuffed the feather in her bag and headed off towards Harmonica Town.

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•٠·˙

Castanet was such a lovely place. Hamilton had clapped her on the back and heartily wished her luck when she visited him—it was nice to have support for festivals wherever you went! Maybe she should start participating in them more often.

After visiting Hamilton, Hikari poked her head into his house to see if Gill was home. He was, sitting quietly at the table reading.

"Afternoon Gill," she grinned at him from the doorway. He jumped a little in his seat and glanced up at her, disgruntled.

"Stop _doing _that," he grumbled. She came in and sat across the table from him.

"You would think that after a year or so of it, you'd expect it by now," Hikari teased.

Gill put his book down and rested his head on his hands. "Still never know what to expect with you. It's always a surprise…"

"Oh, yeah, that reminds me. I have a surprise for you—you're going to love it."

Gill leaned back, feigning disinterest. "Is that so, Hikari?"

"Mhm. It's going to make your day. One sec..." She bent down to retrieve the feather from her backpack. Gill craned his neck slightly to get a better look.

"Here—look at this! I found it this morning." Beaming, she pressed the feather into his hand. For the second time, he jumped in his seat and nearly fell off, staring intently at the feather.

"A—a Blue Feather?" he gasped.

"Yeah!" Hikari replied excitedly. She looked up at his face and saw that all colour had drained. Biting her lip, she asked, "Are you alright?"

Gill looked into her eyes. "Never been better," he replied softly. "I…I know how you feel."

Hikari tilted her head and looked at him quizzically. "That's…good?"

Gill pushed back his chair and stood, striding quickly over to her. When he reached her side, he hauled her out of her chair and wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace.

Hikari stood with her arms pressed to his chest. She couldn't even move to hug him back, so she stood there stiffly, thoroughly puzzled.

When his grip loosened, he ran his hands down her arms and held both her hands gently in his. "You were right, this really did make my day…I'm going to go tell my father. Meet me on the churchgrounds at about 10 tonight to talk about this." Smiling, and without waiting for a reply, he walked out of the house. Hikari stood dumbfounded in the middle of the room.

"Finn?" she asked weakly. The sprite buried his face in her shirt, muffling his reply. She sighed. "What is this, some cursed feather? It's making everyone act weird…" She walked slowly back to the table and picked up the feather in question, inspecting it. Finally, she decided just to forget about the incident and leave.

Closing the mayor's door behind her, she walked out to find Bo standing in the courtyard, looking confused.

"Hi, Bo," she said, deciding not to show him the feather.

"Hi," he replied uncertainly. "Um, Gill just danced by me…"

"'Gill' and 'dance' don't belong in the same sentence, Bo! They don't belong in the same _paragraph._"

Bo held his hands up defensively. "That's what I saw!"

Hikari sighed and shook her head. "Yeah. It's been a weird day. Well, I'm off to the Clinic, I guess."

"Okay," Bo replied. "Umm…try and control Jin."

Hikari smiled. "Shouldn't be too hard. See you around."

As soon as her shoe hit the street of Harmonica Town, all the girls seemed to know where she was. And they all came pouring from the direction of the Inn, shouting and giggling.

"HIKARI! WE HEARD THE NEWS!" Kathy squealed, jumping around in excitement.

"What news?" Hikari asked with interest.

"I knew you could do it," Candace said quietly, giving her a hug.

Renee giggled. Anissa clapped and asked to be invited. Finally, Hikari managed to squeeze by them and started walking backwards to the clinic.

"Um, yeah? I…don't know what you're talking about…"

"Sly dog!" Kathy laughed. "We'll bug you later tonight, though. Meet us all at the Inn!"

Hikari's spirits fell lower. "I'm busy," she said wearily.

Selena laughed bitterly. "Yeah, you probably are."

The farmer decided to ignore her. It seemed like ages before she reached the clinic. Tiredly, she opened the door and slammed it behind her.

Irene glanced up. "Rough day?"

"You have noooo idea." Hikari trudged into the examination room and flomped on the cot. Jin looked over to identify his guest, although he didn't really need to: Hikari was the only one who did that.

"Comfortable, I hope?" he asked drily as she crinkled the paper he was so fussy about.

"Yes, thanks," she replied quietly, closing her eyes. Jin picked up the tone in her voice and swiveled his chair around to face her. She moaned and rolled over, hiding her face.

The doctor rested his head on his hands. "A penny for your thoughts?"

Hikari snorted. "They're so embarrassing and confusing that I'd have to charge you more." He rolled his eyes.

"Oh, come on, Hikari. What's the matter?"

Irritably, the farmer ripped the feather out of her bag and stuck it in his coat pocket. "_That_. You can have it—I don't want it anymore."

Jin's heart thudded as he stared at the feather. "A…Blue Feather?"

Hikari sat up. "Don't go all Gill on me. Yes, it's a feather, and it's blue. What's the big deal?"

The doctor smiled sadly. "You don't know what it means?"

"No." She sighed. "But I have a good idea now."

He looked at her face, trying to read her expression. "Did you show it to someone?"

Hikari bit her lip. "Jin?"

"Hikari?"

"I think I'm accidentally engaged to Luke and Gill."

Jin sat back in his chair and rubbed his nose. Hikari rolled her eyes.

"Thanks Jin, but I can tell you're laughing."

The doctor stood and turned away, still smiling slightly. "So what are you going to do?"

"What should I do?"

"Well…" he leaned against the wall, thinking. "You have two choices."

"I could tell them the truth, that I had no idea what I was doing…"

"Or, you could make up another story that makes you sound less clueless."

"Thanks. Or," she added impishly, "I could marry one of them."

Jin raised an eyebrow. "Or you could marry someone completely else."

"Yeah," she snorted. "'Cause _that _would really help."

"You never know." He sat back down at his desk and picked up his clipboard again. Hikari watched him, noticing the feather still poking out of his pocket. She rolled over onto her stomach.

"Am I going to get that back?"

The doctor turned his head and looked at her sidelong. "Would it be a problem if you didn't?"

"Well, you know, I only had to climb the tallest mountain this side of the ocean to get it, and creep through some giant bird's nest…" Then, she clued into what he meant, and froze.

Hikari thought for awhile. Long minutes passed before she slid off the cot, making a show of thoroughly crinkling the rest of the paper. She walked over to him and draped her arms over his shoulders, resting her chin on his head. "On second thought—n-not really."

Hikari had the worst timing in the world when it came to engagements.

**A/N: I was going to add something about Bo wandering in again, but I decided to leave it at that. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it ^_^**

**All comments/criticisms/reviews are read and appreciated. **

**Thank you for reading C:**


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